FRIDAY EMAILS
It's been a while since I answered some emails. Well, no time like the present. Let's get started.

"Hi Bryan,

I'm an Angels fan. I first of all would like to say I was impressed with your Milwaukee Brewers, they have a solid team this year and seem to play hard. My question is do you remember when people criticized the Angels for signing Vladimir Guerrero to that big deal? Where did all those people go? What are your thoughts on this topic?

Thanks,
Will Levest, Orange County"

Thanks for the email, Will. I wrote about the Guerrero signing a long time ago and said this...
"I know Anaheim is only two games into the season, but all ready it looks like the Vladimir Guerrero signing was a great deal. Some people were skeptical that Guerrero's back problems were too big of a risk to sign the former Expos slugger. All spring he looked healthy and so far he looks to be swinging the bat just fine. Vladimir Guerrero couldn't have landed in a more perfect place. Anaheim is a small enough market where he doesn't have to deal with intense media scrutiny, and the lineup is strong enough where he has protection and doesn't have to do it all."

I'm not one to pat my self on the back every time I make a good prediction, because as people who read the sites know I've made some pretty bad ones so far (KC winning the AL Central?!?!?!". Guerrero is an amazing player who is in his prime and looks to be a great fit in Anaheim. That's how I felt then and I still think that is true today.

"Hi,
How long do you think the Brewers pitching staff can keep it up? Your breakdown of the pitching staff was great. I just have a bad feeling that these guys are all going to start getting knocked around the yard like they should be.

Mark, Wauwatosa"

Oh ye of little faith. Thanks for the email, Mark. I'd say that the likelihood of the staff ERA being under 4.00 by season's end is low, but that doesn't mean that they can't still be a productive staff. Every year players perform far beyond their previously thought to be expectations, so why not a few guys on the Brewers? Maybe a guy like Victor Santos will be this year's Esteban Loaiza (to a smaller degree). That's what makes baseball, and really all sports, so great. No matter how well you think you've broken down the game, team, player or whatever to a science somebody can come out of nowhere to surprise you. That's what makes the games so great. If we knew who was going to win every time why would people play? Why would we watch?

"Hi there,
I've been watching the Brewers a lot this season. One thing I noticed is that Geoff Jenkins seems to be a really good defensive outfielder. Why don't the Brewers consider moving him to CF or RF? I know Podsednik is faster but he takes bad routes to balls and has a really weak arm. Wouldn't you want your best defensive outfielder in RF instead of LF?

Thanks,
Mike"

I actually wrote about this very topic back in spring training. Rather than tell you to search back through my archives here is my exact post.

"It really is an interesting question. Especially when considering the following:
1) Jenkins is a very good outfielder.
2) Ben Grieve (likely RF for MIL) is a very bad outfielder
3) The Brewers plan on giving Brady Clark and Keith Ginter innings in RF

Notice I didn't mention Jenkins' arm strength in this. While it is certainly an advantage for a RF to have a strong arm, I think its a misconception to believe that is why a player is put in RF. The reason you put a talented defensive outfielder (or the better defensive OF of the two corner positions) in RF is to prevent singles from becoming doubles and doubles from becoming triples. There are very few triples hit to LF. It is true that a strong arm can prevent bases from being advanced, but in general an OF's ability to cut a ball off in the gap or make a good read on a ball will have a greater influence on how many bases are advanced as opposed to just pure arm strength.

I can address the statement that "RFs have strong arms" by explaining it this way: RFs are good defensively, so that is usually why they have good arms. It just goes with the package. Rarely will you see a player who is a mess in the outfield but has a cannon (although there are exceptions)...Typically you will see players like that in LF. Shannon Stewart is a guy that has an incredibly weak arm but played RF because he is solid with the glove. With the Mets, Cliff Floyd had a better arm then Cedeno, but they kept Floyd in LF and Cedeno in RF.

I'm guessing that since Jenkins came up a LF and has established himself as one of the best defensive LFs in the game they don't want to mess with him now. Burnitz blocked him in RF when he came up, but Burnitz left after 2001 and since then the Brewers were filling RF with guys like Jeffrey Hammonds, John Vander Wal, Matt Stairs, Brady Clark, Izzy Alcantara, Jim Rushford, Jason Conti, and whoever else has played RF for the Brewers. Why not move him to RF before the 2002 season? In baseball, just like in life, people get labeled all the time. Maybe the Brewers just "think" Jenkins is a LF...Just like the White Sox labeled Chad Bradford as a "successful minor leaguer" that couldn't get hitters out in the big leagues for example."

That is from March 26th. I don't know if Jenkins would have the range to play CF everyday, but he certainly could if the Brewers were desperate to get another bat in the lineup in the future. As his errorless streak reaches about 190 games the likelihood of him switching positions gets less and less. Added to my theories on why he is still in LF would now be the possibility that Brewers' management feels that they'd rather have a very good LFer, which defensively Jenkins is all ready. Why mess with that? Also, with the way Brady Clark is used as defensive sub the damage Grieve can do with his glove has been minimized to a certain degree.

Thanks to everybody who wrote, I hope you found my replies sufficient. A lot of them were just copy-and-paste jobs from a while ago, but sometimes that's all I'm good for. Thanks again and keep the email's coming.